Similar to the the nature of Syrian politics, much known about but little spoken of, often cloaked in secrecy, the Assads, who have reigned supreme as ruling family for over half a century, like to do things hush-hush and on the down-low. Take the nature of the courtship and even marriage of the current President to wife Asma Akhras. Asma, at the time working for a bank in the UK, conducted her whole relationship with the number one family on the sly, as she surreptitiously stole time with Bashar before ...

What's the deal in Yemen? Yemen has a favourable climate for protests: widespread corruption and unemployment, a declining economy, rising living costs, and a nepotistic regime with an ageing president who rules over a young, frustrated and politically excluded majority. Elaborate networks of patronage and corruption that are tied in with Mr Saleh's regime are coming into open view. Why has this leader not followed in the path of Ben Ali of Tunis and Mubarak of Egypt? There are important differences in Yemen that challenge the emergence of a popular ...

Gaddafi Sex crimes A Libyan woman burst into the hotel housing the foreign press in Tripoli on Saturday morning in an attempt to tell journalists, particularly Reuters and the New York Times, that she had been raped and beaten by members of Col. Muammar el-Gaddafi militia. After struggling for nearly an hour to resist removal by Colonel Gaddafi security forces, she was dragged away from the hotel screaming. Some of the male foreign journalists on the scene tried to physically protect the woman. They are now being hailed as heroes ...

As the world remembers Elizabeth Taylor today, the Middle East mourns the passing of a first class world celebrity who graced our screens and media across the decades, first showing up on our screens as a child actress aged 10. She since came to be known for her legendary beauty and natural glamour that shined through her movies and attracted in many men. She was married 8 times, twice over to the same Richard Burton, rumoured to be considering a 9th. One of her husbands was a prince of Monaco ...

More murder and intrigue linked with the Mubarak's ousted regime is emerging in this time of post- regime settling of scores. It seems to be a free-for-all space of charges, recriminations and some serious accusations to an apparently very corrupt regime. Specifically, we see an interplay between some regular ingredients: women, money, celebrity, death, murder, and binding all together, the regime.

Music entertainers-Rock, R&B, pop, and rap: A mix of artists, all implicated by performances funded and hosted by the Gaddafis.Pop stars don't always decide who supports them (their fanbase), but sometimes they are expected to be selective in who they support in return. So performing for a despot or war criminal would not cut it my most expectations of role-model pop-star behavior. We could give them the benefit of the doubt for their unintentional connection to a despotic and now outright murderous regime. Often performances are set up by a ...

The Gaddafis flirt with Israel: In a report emerging from Yediot Aharonot- local Israeli paper in Hebrew- as well as a local Lebanese publication, Al-Akbar news- Saif al-Islam is rumoured to be going to Israel for support at this time for his embattled country. He is said to have quite a developed relationship with Israel both during this current crisis and in his own personal life, more specifically love life. According to the report, he has solicited senior leaders from Israel for their expert assistance with security and military enforcement- ...

Haifa Wehbe : Lebanese beauty, model, actress and singer. But mostly known for the controversy she creates. She needs no introduction in the Middle East. With attention and eyes tuned into the Arab world, not surprisingly some are still landing on Haifa’s cleavage in the midst of standard revolutionary images. And Haifa is concerned to salvage her breast reputation and acting career. With the spotlight on Tahrir Square, she has managed to keep at least some attention fixed on her camera-loving self. By drawing attention to her breast size. While ...

An Al Bawaba exclusive brings you a story of Egyptian state LEAKS straight out of the heart of the Revolution. It all started on Saturday night, when some officers in the State Security started burning what are alleged to be classified documents in Alexandria state security office (Fairuz), in order to hide any evidence of the state security’s unsavory or unethical activities. The State’s security arm is widely accused of human rights abuses, such as torture of detainees. Protesters, empowered by now by the promise of the newly sworn in ...

Not his daughter, not his mistresses, but his Guards. The Amazonian Guards: These are the ladies in Gaddafi’s life everyone’s talking about. We’ve heard of Leaders of States in time memoriam surrounding themselves with women. In some parts of Europe having mistresses is par for the course for men, culturally, and never more so than for men in power. In other quarters, it causes scandals of sleaze in the cabinet and arouses much uproar – at times spilling over into protests, as witnessed with Italy’s Main Man, Berlusconi under female ...